Page 59 of Ghosts Don't Cry

I have no claim on him. Not anymore. And certainly not after what he said to me.

You were an easy mark.

They advance as a unit, the same choreography they perfected in high school. Amy leads, Kate flanks, two predators who’ve spotted prey.

I press my lips together. I can’t watch this. Iwon’t. Except … I can’t look away.

“Ronan Oliver.” Amy’s voice shifts into a honeyed purr. “I almost didn’t recognize you.”

He straightens, expression shuttering, then his gaze shifts over Amy’s shoulder, scanning …

And he finds me standing at the end of the aisle.

His eyes lock on mine for one second … two … and then his stance shifts. The guardedness doesn’t disappear, but it changes.

“Amy. Kate.” His voice drops into a low, slow drawl I’ve never heard before. “It’s been a while.”

“It definitely has.” Amy moves closer, hips swaying. “Prison clearly agreed with you.”

I expect him to back away. I’ve seen him do it a hundred times before when people moved into his space, watched him flinch from touches he didn’t invite. But this isn’t the boy I went to school with. He lets her approach. When her hand lands on his arms, his eyes find mine again.

The cereal box in my hand crumples.

“Did you work out a lot in there?” Her fingers trail over his bicep, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. “It’s paid off, because this is new.”

I can’t breathe, can’t get the image of her hands on him out of my head, touching skin I?—

No!I have no right to be angry. He made it clear we were nothing, that I meant nothing to him …

So why is he still looking at me?

“Had to pass the time somehow.” The words rumble from his chest, and heat floods my face.

I remember that voice. The way it sounded against my throat when he whispered my name in the dark of the factory. When he told me things he’d never said to anyone else.

Stop it!

Kate circles around to his other side. “We should catch up properly. Maybe over drinks?”

“Not much to catch up on.” But he doesn’t move away when she steps closer, her breast brushing against his arm.

My nails dig crescents into my palm.

He’s doing this on purpose. Letting them circle like sharks, and touch him. His eyes keep meeting mine between their attempts, challenging me … daring me to react.

To show I care.

To prove him wrong about us being nothing.

I need to get away from here, but I still can’t move, or stop the jealousy that’s poisoning every breath I take.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Amy purrs. “A lot can happen in seven years. And that house you’re living in on Cedar … It must get lonely up there.”

“The price of privacy.” One corner of his mouth lifts slightly, and my breath catches.

I recognize that smile. It’s the one that mimicked all the right things, gave off the right message, but was really just a mask. He used it when teachers asked how his home life was, and he’d tell them it was fine.

“Privacy is overrated.” Kate moves even closer. “Sometimes you need company to …” Her tongue wets her lips again. “To break in a new place.”